- Peru: Balcázar becomes eighth president in a decade
Source: Associated Press
“Peru’s Congress late Wednesday elected legislator José María Balcázar as the country’s eighth president in a decade, replacing another interim leader who was ousted the previous day over corruption allegations just four months into his term. Balcázar, an 83-year-old former judge representing the leftist Perú Libre party, defeated three other candidates with a majority of the 130-member legislature. The revolving-door presidency in Peru reflects a political crisis fueled by a lack of legislative majorities for leaders. Lawmakers have frequently used a broad interpretation of a constitutional article regarding ‘permanent moral incapacity’ to remove sitting presidents.” (02/19/26)
https://apnews.com/article/peru-president-congress-interim-election-c6f1e2d6c061ea8ba1cb0f4f467609bc
- MN: Judge holds ICE gang lawyer in contempt
Source: KMSP 9 News
“For the first time during Operation Metro Surge, a federal judge has imposed stiff consequences on a government attorney for ICE’s violation of a court order related to the release of a detained immigrant. Judge Laura Provinzino found Special Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt during a Wednesday afternoon hearing. Judge Provinzino issued a civil contempt order against Isihara in a habeas case, ordering daily fines of $500. She said her goal is to ensure the government complies with her orders regarding a detained Mexican immigrant from Big Lake, Minnesota. … Isihara blamed a massive caseload and ‘not enough staff’ in the U.S. Attorney’s office to handle all the civil litigation connected to Operation Metro Surge.” (02/18/26)
https://www.fox9.com/news/federal-judge-holds-government-attorney-contempt-violation-court-order
- UN Report: Israeli Forces and Hamas Committed Atrocity Crimes in Gaza
Source: US News & World Report
“Israeli forces, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have both committed serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and carried out atrocity crimes, a U.N. report published on Thursday said. Intensified Israeli attacks and the forcible transfer of Palestinians appeared aimed at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza ‘raising concerns over ethnic cleansing,’ the report by the U.N. human rights office said. The holding and mistreatment of hostages by the Hamas Islamist militant group may amount to war crimes, it said.” (02/19/26)
- RNC sues to block Democratic-backed Virginia redistricting referendum
Source: United Press International
“The Republican National Committee is suing to halt a Democratic-backed referendum on redrawing the commonwealth’s congressional map, as both parties wage a mid-decade redistricting fight ahead of November’s midterm elections. The RNC filed its lawsuit Wednesday, after GOP-led Texas began a Trump-urged push last summer to redraw its map to add more Republican seats, kicking off tit-for-tat moves across the country in a fight that could decide control of Congress. The lawsuit seeks emergency injunctive relief to block an April 21 referendum on a proposed amendment to the commonwealth’s Constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting, arguing the legislation Virginia’s General Assembly approved to put the question before voters is invalid and goes against the state’s Constitution.” (02/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/19/RNC-sues-Virginia-redistricting/7211771489812/
- UK: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Source: The Hill
“U.K. police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Thames Valley Police, an agency that covers areas west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, said it was ‘assessing’ reports that the former Prince Andrew sent trade reports to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2010. The assessment followed the release of millions of pages of documents connected to a U.S. investigation of Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor features a number of times in the documents. The police force did not name Mountbatten-Windsor, as is normal under U.K. law. But when asked if he had been arrested, the force pointed to a statement saying that they had arrested a man in his 60s. Mountbatten-Windsor is 66.” (02/19/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/international/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-jeffrey-epstein
- South Korea: Yoon sentenced to life for martial law attempt
Source: CBS News
“Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison for his brief imposition of martial law in a dramatic culmination to the country’s biggest political crisis in decades. Yoon fell from office after an ill-advised attempt to overcome an opposition-controlled legislature by declaring martial law and sending troops to surround the legislature on Dec. 3, 2024. Judge Jee Kui-youn said he found Yoon guilty of rebellion for mobilizing military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the liberal-led National Assembly, arrest politicians and establish unchecked power for a ‘considerable’ time. Yoon is likely to appeal the verdict.” (02/19/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yoon-life-sentence-martial-law-former-south-korea-president/
- Khanna, Massie Move to Force War Powers Vote in House as Senile Reality TV Star Signals Possible Iran Strike
Source: Benzinga
“Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are set to compel a vote on their War Powers Resolution, requiring congressional approval for military action against Iran. This move comes in response to reports of a potential U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran, with a 90% likelihood, according to Trump officials cited by Khanna in his X post. On Wednesday, Khanna and Massie announced their plans to force a vote on the bipartisan resolution, which would necessitate congressional authorization for any U.S. military action against Iran.” (02/19/26)
- Japan: Takaichi Formally Reappointed As PM Following Election Victory
Source: Barron’s
“Japan’s Sanae Takaichi was formally reappointed as prime minister on Wednesday, 10 days after her historic landslide election victory. Takaichi, 64, became Japan’s first woman premier in October and won a two-thirds majority for her party in the snap lower house elections on February 8. She has pledged to bolster Japan’s defences to protect its territory and waters, likely further straining relations with Beijing, and to boost the flagging economy. Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force. China, which regards the democratic island as part of its territory and has not ruled out force to annex it, was furious. Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that forces in Japan were seeking to ‘revive militarism.'” (02/18/26)
- Venezuela’s Oil and the Death of a Latin American Dream
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider“On January 29, Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, signed a law that opens Venezuela’s oil industry to privatization. With the stroke of a pen, Rodríguez signed, not only the law, but the death certificate of a decades old Latin American dream.” (02/19/26)
- Structure, Loyalty, and Power: Understanding China’s Party-State Under Xi Jinping
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“In late January 2026, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced investigations into two of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) most senior officers …. These investigations capped a wave of high-level purges that began in 2023 and steadily hollowed out the PLA’s senior leadership. At one point, the CMC, China’s supreme military decision-making body, was reduced in functional terms to Xi himself as chairman and the anti-corruption chief Zhang Shengmin as vice chairman. … To understand what these developments mean, one must understand the architecture of Chinese politics. China is not merely an authoritarian state. It is a Leninist party-state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dominates every lever of power, the PLA functions as the party’s armed wing, and central authority increasingly overrides provincial discretion. The recent purges illuminate not dysfunction, but design.” (02/19/26)
- Mamdani Attacks Workers
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is going after gig workers. To do his dirty work, the mayor is using holdovers from the Biden administration (who oppose independent contractors), reports C. Jarrett Dieterle at Reason magazine. … Mamdani’s war on freelancers will be costly not only for gig workers and the companies that help them function but also for customers.” (02/19/26)
- Is NATO creating an Arctic crisis to placate Trump?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Pavel Devyatkin“Last week, NATO launched ‘Arctic Sentry,’ a new ‘multi-domain activity’ that, for the first time, places Allied operations in the Arctic under a single command structure. The move marks a significant scaling-up of NATO’s footprint in the Arctic. But unfortunately, as NATO’s regional military presence increases, the mechanisms for preventing that footprint from generating a crisis are not keeping pace. … Arctic Sentry arrives in a politically charged context. President Trump has ramped up tensions in the alliance by threatening to annex Greenland. The mission follows Trump’s meeting with Rutte in Davos, where they agreed NATO should do more for Arctic defense and ‘prevent the Russians and the Chinese getting more access to the Arctic region.’ Even after Europe dispatched a small, symbolic force to Greenland last month, the White House made clear that European troops there would not change Trump’s mind about annexation.” (02/19/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nato-arctic-military-exercises/
- On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same
Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov“lexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the Munich Security Conference to introduce herself to the world as a foreign policy thinker. She returned having demonstrated something else entirely: that the Democratic Party’s progressive star has absorbed the establishment’s worst ideas while shedding only its least popular rhetoric.” (02/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-foreign-policy-aoc-is-just-more-of-the-same/
- Relativism in today’s world
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Who are you to say? is a way of saying that you (or I) have no right to judge other people, nor to judge actions. As it is applied today, especially if the people whose actions you are judging are of a different ethnicity, ‘race’ (skin color), cultural background, nation, or even sex. It ties back to a statement by Jesus the Christ. It is perhaps the most twisted of any of His quotes: ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ (King James version) It is taken out of context to make judging other people, their actions, and their character a sin. In context, it is clear that He is teaching teaching something else.” (02/18/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/02/18/relativism-in-todays-world/
- FDA’s Straight Shooter: Don’t Bring Crappy Data To A Gunfight
Source: Racket News
by Emily Kopp“For years the Food and Drug Administration has handed down shocking decision after shocking decision, always in the same direction: The approval of Alzheimer’s drugs that are balanced precariously on a mountain of fraudulent papers and that sometimes make your brain explode; the approval of OxyContin for 11-year-olds; the approval of COVID-19 booster shots in healthy young people in order to please the political science majors in the White House. But there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s made a lot of powerful enemies already reining in a lawless pharmaceutical industry.” (02/18/26)
- The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England’s Politics
Source: The UnPopulist
by Alan Elrod“When Britain’s most notorious far-right agitator, Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), endorsed a Reform UK candidate late last month, it was yet another indicator of the growing ideological overlap between the nation’s most extreme anti-immigration elements and the right’s institutional organs. Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s insurgent right-wing populist party that has led the polls for over a year, disavowed Robinson—a predictable maneuver aimed at damage control. But it couldn’t obscure the real story: the collapse of any meaningful ideological daylight between Robinson’s street-level radicalism and right-wing electoral politics in Britain today.” (02/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-far-right-is-rapidly-remaking
- Trump should step back from the brink with Iran
Source: Orange County Register
by Alexander Langlois“One can be excused for wondering why the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently beaten accusations of near-death since its inception in 1979. The regime in Tehran has held onto power through successive internal and external crises regardless of doomsday prophesizing in Washington or Tel Aviv. As the Iranian government faces one of the most difficult moments in its brief existence – both internally and externally — the question now, as the US sends a second aircraft carrier to the region is will this time be different?” (02/18/26)
- “No taxation without representation” must be non-negotiable
Source: spiked
by Ann Strickland“Around this time last week, I was standing in the pouring rain in West Sussex, handing out leaflets to defend something that should never have needed defending: the right of local residents to vote. The TaxPayers’ Alliance had been out across the county campaigning against the Labour government’s plan to cancel elections in 30 local authorities across England. … taxpayers should never have had to rely on opposition parties, newspapers and campaign groups to defend the most basic principles of democracy. Holding regular elections should be the bare minimum we expect of the people in charge.” (02/18/26)
- Blaming Buildings for Sex Trafficking
Source: Reason
by Elizabeth Nolan Brown“Can a building be a sex trafficker? Some lawyers seem to be hoping so. Apartment buildings, nightclubs, and hotels have been coming under fire for facilitating interactions that some say should have been tip-offs to sex trafficking or sexual violence taking place. Victims in these lawsuits describe some heinous actions by their alleged abusers. I’m not trying to minimize any such harm or suggest actual perpetrators of violence shouldn’t be punished. But in the push to hold more entities legally accountable for alleged sex crimes against women, these suits are setting up a system in which women are increasingly watched and their sex lives increasingly subject to questioning. The end result here isn’t likely to be a world in which women are safer but one in which they’re more surveilled.” (02/18/26)
https://reason.com/2026/02/18/blaming-buildings-for-sex-trafficking/
- We have to trust liberty completely
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“As Voltairine de Cleyre wrote in 1908, ‘[T]he sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly.’ They thought America could have liberty along with a central government — a state. It didn’t work. Now we are stuck with a growing police state, and the tatters of our remaining liberty are being criminalized at an astonishing rate. This won’t end well. Liberty is indivisible — it can’t be broken into pieces and remain liberty. You can’t respect it selectively (for some people, in some areas, some of the time) and call it ‘liberty.’ True liberty requires consistent respect for everyone’s rights, everywhere, all the time.” (02/18/26)
- My Plea To Team Gold
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg“I’m a bitcoin advocate, but I also love gold and silver; they’re honest money with no necessity of a counter-party. That is, they’re wonderful for decentralized commerce, which we and the world very much need. My plea to Team Gold is to begin using their wonderful money, rather than leaving it forever on shelves. (Whether their own or in a vault.) By no means am I opposed to keeping gold as an insurance policy; it’s great for that use. But the monetary metals have just enjoyed a great and long overdue run-up, at this point I think we need to take the next logical step: To start using our better money. … we’ll simultaneously build a new infrastructure. And I know this is true because I’ve watched it happen twice in a row over the past twenty-five years: first for e-gold and then for bitcoin.” (02/18/26)
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/18/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“As War with Iran Lurks in Wait, How Did We Get Here? w/ Dr. Arta Moeini.” (02/18/26)
- Kibbe on Liberty, 02/18/26
Source: Free the People
“Government Corruption Runs Even Deeper Than We Thought | Guest: Mike Benz.” (02/18/26)
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2736
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“The GDP Racket, and the AI Profitability Problem.” (02/18/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2736-the-gdp-racket-and-the-ai-profitability-problem/
- System Update, 02/18/26
Source: System Update
“Lindsey Graham’s Extreme Devotion to Israel on Full Display.” (02/18/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/lindsey-grahams-extreme-devotion
- The Science of Politics, 02/18/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Legislators are raising money instead of making policy.” (02/18/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/legislators-are-raising-money-instead-of-making-policy
- Reason Interview: Fardad Farahzad
Source: Reason
“Can Iran’s Protest Movement Topple the Regime?” (02/18/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/02/18/can-irans-protest-movement-topple-the-regime/